2023 was our family’s biggest travel year ever. We spent 161 days, or five and a half months, traveling in Europe with a small detour in Africa and Asia. In total, we have taken 20 flights, 58 airbnbs / hotels, multiple train, bus and boat rides, as well as rental cars for road trips, setting our footprints on 18 countries.

Before we get into our overseas travel details, let’s first rewind.

Family

In the beginning of the year, I took my parents and little ones to one of our favorite places, Cresent Lake in Washington, for a family selfie photo session.

We revisited many of our favorite local spots in the Pacific Northwest, including Hurricane Ridge, Dungeness Spit, Marymere Falls etc., before bidding farewell to my parents, who spent 7 months with us since the summer of 2022.

In the same month of February, I bid farewell again to my husband, who had to move to Germany for 6 months for work.

Work - landscape photography

I hesitated to use the word “work”, as none of the following felt like work for me. Until I find the better word in the future, I’ll just use “work” as a category to describe a major part of activities for the year.

For the first time, I signed a contract with an artist agent who would license my photos to multiple art reproduction companies that sell artworks to a wide network of national retailers.

Photography started as a mere hobby over 20 years ago. When I decided to leave behind a relatively comfortable 6-digit salary to pursue my passion 17 years ago, I didn't know how my journey would unfold.

Fast forward, 17 years, 10+ cameras later, this journey turned out to be the most exciting adventure and rewarding part of my life. I have been invited to speaker events to share travel photography tips with aspiring photographers. And now my first batch of more than 200 landscape photos were licensed.

I couldn’t exactly describe how I felt, only to know that I was blessed to be on a path that continued to show me wonders.

Work - Travel Portrait photography

For the next three months, while my kids went to school during the day, I recorded my first travel photography video course - Document Happiness, which included 40 videos with a total length of 6 hours. It was so far the best way I could help any photo enthusiasts to improve travel photo quality, particularly in candid style, on an accelerated path.

No matter if you are a beginner, or intermediate photo enthusiasts, no matter if you have a DSLR or a mirrorless camera, as long as you are interested in documenting your beautiful travel journey but can’t consistently produce pro quality photos, this would be the perfect course for you.

local Travel

During weekends, my kids and I continued to explore our favorite Olympic National Park and its nearby regions. Surprisingly, we discovered new spots we haven’t visited before. For example, Camp David Jr Rd on the north shore of Cresent Lake soon became our new favorite.

We visited a creamery for the first time and got some farm themed photos that I always wanted for my kids.

On Memorial Weekend, I took the kids to the Pacific coast, and revisited some of our favorite beaches. Some of these photos also became part of my Document Happiness course, which perfectly showcased examples of candid style travel photos.

International Travel

As soon as my kids finished school in June, we left the US and flew to Germany. We didn’t sell our house or anything, but did give up our BMW X7, which had accompanied us on many unforgettable trips since our visit to Rhode Island in 2020.

The original plan was to meet my husband and spend some quality family time together. I packed several suitcases of clothes, in the hope that we might like Europe and want to live there for a while. This soon became unrealistic when we found out my husband’s intense work schedule. We wouldn’t be able to travel together for a while, not to mention make plans to move to a European country.

So I made a big decision to travel with my kids, alone! Neither my husband nor I knew this solo trip with kids ended up taking almost 4 months. We had to ship several suitcases back to the US in the end of the summer, and happily embraced the fact that we were mere travelers in Europe.

Now, back to 161 days, aka 23 weeks, 20 flights, 58 airbnbs / hotels, multiple train, bus and boat rides, as well as rental cars for road trips. Among the 18 countries we’ve visited, some were quick pass-throughs, some were revisits, but most were new territories.

The following is a complete list of the countries we’ve visited. Click on the links to see details of each trip.

Complete List By Country

👉 Several trips to Germany totaling 21 days, including 5 days in Nuremberg, 16 days in Frankfurt and Wiesbaden split between 4 different airbnbs.

👉 3 trips to Italy totaling 19 days, including 1-week charter sail in Naples and Almafi Coast, 5 days in Venice, 4 days in Rome and Vatican City, 2 days in Milan.

👉 17-day road trip to Romania, exploring various cities and regions, including the capital city of Bucharest, Transfăgărășan Highway and Transalpina Highway, Sibiu and Sighișoara, Brasov and Cluj-Napoca, as well as small towns such as Rasnov, Biertan, Viscri, Bran Castle, Corvin’s Castle, Alba Iulia, etc.

👉 17-day road trip to Morocco, exploring Tangier, Chefchaouen, Volubilis, Fes, Sahara Dunes, Todra Gorge, Dadas Gorge, Ait Ben Haddou, Marrakesh and Essaouira.

👉 12 days in Turkey, exploring Istanbul and Cappadocia

👉 11 days in Dubrovnik, Croatia

👉 10 days in Portugal, splitting between Lisbon and the Algarve coast in the south.

👉 10 days in Kotor Bay, Montenegro

👉 10-day road trip in Albania, mainly exploring the Albania Riviera

👉 9-day road trip to Northern Ireland and Ireland, exploring Atlantic coasts, and national parks.

👉 8 days in Bulgaria, exploring its capital city of Sofia and Plovdiv

👉 8 days in Brussels, the capital city of Belgium

👉 5 days in France, mainly exploring Marseille and Aix-en-Provence in the south

👉 A short road trip to Lake Constance, driving around multiple countries across Austria, Germany, Liechtenstein, and Switzerland

👉 A brief road trip to Switzerland, based in Zürich, mainly exploring Lucerne & Grindelwald

As shown in the above collage photos, I don’t just teach “Document Happiness”, I practice it, almost on a daily basis. I would certainly like to continue my practice in the new year of 2024. If you haven’t practiced it, try to start now, as it would certainly bring you the most rewarding experience and joy in life.

Last but not least, check out our previous Years In Review.

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